According to This Gujarat Class 12 Textbook, 'Sita was Abducted by Rama'

Terioney

Editor

posted on 6 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

33
views

The Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks (GSBST) said it will rectify the grave error in the Class 12 Sanskrit textbook “at the earliest”.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks (GSBST) has shot itself in the foot yet again. The latest blooper comes in the Class 12 Sanskrit textbook, which says Sita was abducted by Lord Ram.

The error appears in a paragraph describing poet Kalidas' 'Raghuvansham'. The offending line on Page 106 of the textbook's English version reads: “There is a very heart-touching description of the message conveyed by Laxman to Ram when Sita was abducted by Rama.”

The textbook errs on several counts. Firstly, teams that are involved in translating textbooks from one language to another have written wrongly used ‘abducted’ instead of ‘abandoned’. The Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi versions have used the phrase ‘Sita Tyaag’.

The GSBST has admitted to having made the error and promised to rectify it at the earliest. “Yes, I admit that such errors adversely impact the credibility of the textbook board. In this instance, it appears as if the translators have wrongly used the word ‘abducted’ and proof readers have overlooked the error. We have already corrected the error in the online version of the textbooks and I have instructed officials to issue notices to those involved in the translation and proof reading of this particular book. If required, we will even black list those found responsible for the error,” Dr Nitin Pethani, chairman of the board, said.

Educationist and Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Dr Manish Doshi said GSBST comes up with “lame excuses” every time an error is pointed out. “Every year, dozens of mistakes are revealed in textbooks of all classes in Gujarat. It has become so common that people do not take these errors seriously now. One can only imagine how confused students will get after reading in their textbooks that Lord Ram abducted Sita. This is an insult to Lord Ram,” Doshi said.

In June last year, a Class 9 Hindi textbook referred to Jesus Christ as a demon. Realising the blooper, both the education minister and the chairman of the textbook board said the error will be rectified.